From mortality to morbidity: the challenge of the twenty-first century

Although maternal mortality has been the traditional measure used to evaluate the status of women's health in pregnancy, the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded beyond its surveillance of pregnancy mortality to explore pregnancy morbidity. Working with a variety of partners, we are looking at several questions. What is pregnancy morbidity, its spectrum and prevalence? What are the most serious complications of pregnancy? Are there differences in the severity of complications between white and black women? What conditions should be monitored and by what methods? Answers to these questions should help us understand why some groups of women experience a greater risk of death from pregnancy, but also help us to enlarge the scope of our concern for the health of women before, during, and after pregnancy.